I am thinking about buying a Librem 15 version 3 with the standard memory (8GB) and storage (250 GB SATA M.2 SSD) and then upgrading the memory and storage later myself.
Is upgrading memory and storage user friendly in the Librem 15 version 3 user friendly?
Any thoughts on brands of memory or storage? (I have seen some brands of storage have proprietary software.)
Thanks
you can run all of them without the need to install ANY proprietary software.
SSDs and RAM don’t require any 3d party software installed unless you are doing something niche and very specific. try searching the forums - this has been answered more extensively in other threads here on Purism.
@Roger the laptop is pretty user friendly and easy to open, just unscrew the bottom plat screws (pay attention which one goes where, the L15 has three different sizes) and take off the bottom plate - aka D-shell. RAM and the two SSD slots (M.2 and 2.5") are easy to identify.
When handling electronic components please make sure that you are doing this in an as ESD safe environment as possible, do not directly touch any connectors (hold parts on their edges / corners), ground yourself before starting the work (prepare a clean table and chair), sit down and then firmly touch a metal part connected to AC earth for some seconds.
For opening the case and handling the parts (especially storage) you need a Philips type cross headed screwdriver PH #00.
While closing the laptop pay attention that all side of the D-shell go flat onto the C-shell again - it happens pretty easily that it does not snap down fully when re-attaching. Look at the laptop before opening and remember how it looks, that’s what it should look like again after the operation 
Concerning parts, RAM is DDR4 SODIMM 2133 or 2400, up to 32GB. The 2.5" slot can carry pretty much any 2.5" SSD or harddisk (SATA) with a height of up to 9.5mm. The M.2 slot is a M.2 2280 type and is compatible with M.2 SATA and M.2 NVME SSDs. The NVME offers best performance.
Be careful - and have fun
Cheers
nicole
Maybe of limited direct use, but my Librem 13 v4 came with standard 4GB RAM, and I found upgrading to 16GB ridiculously easy. There are a good many screws, but they use a standard cross-head (Phillips) screwdriver as Nicole mentioned, and there are only two lengths to keep straight. Once inside, it was just snap the old out and the new in. Given the number of tabs I generally keep open, it was a worthwhile upgrade, it made things noticeably smoother and I haven’t had any problems.
I believe that the M.2 slots on the Librem 15v3 are restricted to PCI3 transfer rates (private communication from @mladen) . Many M.2 SSDs are now offering PCI4 rates which in some cases are double that of PCI3, however installing a PCI4 drive in the laptop would still work but run at PCI3 rates.
…and for hardware noobs like me, here is an interesting review of the difference in form factors with M.2 and SATA, ie although they hav different connectors, some M.2 drives can still be connecting to the SATA-bus on the motherboard, and does run at SATA III transfer rates. However, M.2 PCIe drives can connect to the PCI-express bus on the motherboard which allows for much higher (factor of 10 on PCIe 4) transfer rates than the SATA III drives.
So if you’re going to upgrade your SSD (which I am thinking of donig on my L15v3) go for a M.2 PCIe-3 drive, as the L15v3 was shipped with a SATA III.
You’re confusing NVMe and SATA speeds/specs here.
The m.2 socket on the 15v3 supports SATA III (6Gbps) and PCIe 3.0 x4 (4GBps). PCIe 4.0 isn’t currently supported on any laptops other than those using Intel’s latest (11th-gen/TigerLake-U) platform.
There were some early issues which caused us to restrict the SATA speed to SATA II (3Gbps), but that’s no longer the case with the current firmware.
again, you’re conflating NVMe and SATA specs here, which are completely independent and unrelated.
thank you for correcting me, that’s good to know.